


In The Shadows

by econator



Series: Adventures of Rowmi [2]
Category: Formula E RPF
Genre: Horror, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, Please skip this one, if violent ghost stories aren't your jam, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-04 10:22:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/econator/pseuds/econator
Summary: Oli and Seb take a walk in a park after launching the car in Japan. They encounter a being that Seb thought was an urban legend.





	In The Shadows

Oli took Seb's hand as they walked through the nearly empty park. He felt anonymous in the deepening twilight on the other side of the world, free to love his man without fear of interference from one of the angry white men who seemed to find the sight of two men holding hands threatening enough to their own view of the world to feel entitled to hateful violence. Maybe they were jealous of him for having such a wonderful partner. Seb squeezed his hand and shot him a little grin.

'Je t'aime, Chouchou,' Seb said, his voice only just audible over the hum of the nearby streets.

Oli's belly fluttered. It always did when Seb called him that, now that he knew it meant “baby,” and he wanted to take care of Oli's needs. He squeezed Seb's hand back.

'Je t'aime aussi.'

Seb stopped walking, and pressed a gentle kiss onto Oli's cheek.

'I mean it. I'm glad that you're my teammate for another year.'

'Me too. I'm glad that we're driving for a team based here, where nobody's likely to attack us for holding hands in public.'

Seb chuckled.

'Great local food, you as my teammate, and temporary freedom from the threat of violence. This season's going to be amazing.'

'Mmm.' Oli pulled Seb's body close. 'I need to buy you a kimono to match our cars. You'd look amazing in a kimono.'

'Oh yeah? You're not just saying that because it would give you easy access to my arse?'

'Of course the arse and back access thing.' Oli bent his head and kissed Seb's neck. 'But also because you're amazing and I'm super glad we found each other.'

Seb's arms tightened around Oli's waist.

'I'm glad too. You're amazing too.'

Oli kissed Seb on the mouth, glad for the cover of the almost-darkness that allowed him a cheeky squeeze of Seb's gorgeous flat arse as the older man opened to his embrace.

'Do you think I'm pretty?' a woman asked in Japanese from somewhere to Oli's left.

Seb's body tensed against his. Oli turned to where the voice was coming from. His first instinct was to tell her that of course she was pretty, the scars on either side of her mouth telling him more than he wanted to know about how people usually treated her. Seb took Oli's hand and squeezed it hard enough to hurt. Oli glanced at him, noting how tense his shoulders looked in the gathering darkness, and interpreted his action as fear, perhaps not knowing enough words to reply to her.

'Why is beauty important?' Seb asked her in halting, broken Japanese.

The woman looked confused.

'I must be pretty,' she said.

'Why do our opinions matter?' Oli said in equally incompetent Japanese, taking his lead from Seb, who seemed unreasonably afraid of the woman and her questions.

'My husband said I wasn't pretty enough because I never smiled for him.' She looked earnestly into Oli's face. 'Do you think I'm pretty?'

'A beautiful heart is more important to us than a beautiful face,' Seb said. He looked at Oli. 'I love him because his heart and mind are beautiful.'

The woman looked uncomfortable and walked away. Oli pulled Seb into a side hug as she walked away from them across the park.

'Did you mean that?' Oli said. 'About falling in love with my heart and mind, I mean.'

'And your driving skills. And your gorgeous feet, with your sexy, fluffy toes. But let's get out of here now.'

Oli squeezed Seb's shoulders, wishing he would just relax.

'What if I wanted to carry on kissing you? Knowing you love me for more than just my body makes me want to do despicable things to you.'

'Not here, not now.'

Oli couldn't figure out why Seb was so spooked by being approached by a stranger who clearly wanted some affirmation. They watched the woman walk up to a man who was striding along the path, talking agitatedly into his phone. She asked him the same question.

'No,' he snapped loudly at her.

Although she had her back to them, Oli could see the change in her stance, from curious to attack mode. She pulled a giant pair of tailor's shears out of her dress pocket, and viciously stabbed the man in his abdomen and chest. Oli felt his body freeze in horror. When the man fell backwards, his phone falling from his hand as his eyes stared unseeingly into the night sky, the woman relaxed, and resumed her walk through the park.

'Merde,' Seb whispered, stepping backwards away from the woman.

'Yeah, that's definitely shite. Should we help him or call the police?' Oli hissed at Seb, feeling oddly numb and simultaneously disturbed at witnessing his first murder. 'I feel like we should do something. She can't just go around stabbing people like that.'

'He's already dead. We can't help him. We have to get out of here.'

'We should still call the bobbies.' Oli noticed his hands were shaking as he pulled his phone out his pocket. 'What number is the cop shop in this country?'

Seb looked at Oli like he was being ridiculous.

'You have no idea what just happened, do you?'

'Of course I do. A crazy woman just stabbed a man to death, and I don't understand why you're being so weird about it, not wanting to call the authorities.'

Seb pointed at her as she approached the only other occupant of the park, this time an older gentleman. She asked him her question. He paused and looked at her before replying in the affirmative. She clapped her hands and jumped excitedly. She pulled off her mask, revealing two horrifying cuts in her mouth, extending her smile to the base of her ears. The man looked terrified.

'It's you! My grandchildren told me about you. I thought they were playing silly games.'

'I'm going to make you pretty, just like me,' she said.

He backed away, begging her to leave him alone. She pounced on him and pulled the scissors out of her pocket. She held her victim's head against the ground as she cut his mouth open to match hers. He screamed in agony as she cut through his flesh, trying to squirm out of her grasp. When she was finished, she looked down at him, grinning grotesquely.

'Now you're pretty, like me,' she said before disappearing into the darkness.

'Fuck,' Oli said. 'Are you going to call the coppers, or tell me what just happened?'

'Let's get out of here. Now. Before she comes back to us.' Seb said, pulling Oli's hand as he walked quickly towards the lights of a nearby bar. 'We can look up the slit-mouthed woman story online from somewhere safer than here.'

'I'm asking the bar tender to call the police. They need to know about this. We can't be the only witnesses to a murder and a vicious assault, and just not do anything about it.'

'Someone else will call them. They'll understand what happened,' Seb said, pulling Oli into the brightly lit bar with him. He ordered two whiskies and sat on a stool at the bar counter, his hands shaking.

'What in the ever-loving fuck just happened?!'

'Something I thought was just an urban legend that someone told me to put me off my game before a race.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Oli's disturbed feelings over witnessing a homicide were boiling over into rage at Seb for being so goddamn cryptic. 'And who the hell is that woman that you knew enough to be afraid of her?'

'She's the slit-mouthed woman. It's a ghost story that people here tell during the Japanese version of Halloween. Someone told me about her one time I was here for the Fuji race. I thought they were trying to scare us out of winning.'

'Or they were trying to save your life. Is that how you knew to not give her a yes or no answer?'

'Yeah, maybe.' Seb knocked back his whisky, giving the half-tortured sigh of someone whose oesophagus felt like it was on fire as he gestured for a refill. 'I'm just glad I remembered how to avoid being killed or disfigured.'

'Fuck, me too.' Oli copied Seb and downed the drink in front of him. 'We're never going to that park again.'

'We fly out tomorrow, thanks God.'

'You met the slit-mouthed woman?' the bar tender said to Seb as he poured them a refill. He sounded tense.

'Yes. It was fucking terrifying. I thought she was a myth.'

'Your drinks are for free.' The bar tender reached under the counter, and handed them both a simple leather thong bracelet with a small bead inscribed with a character Oli didn't recognise. 'For protection,' he said, before pulling his phone out and making a call that Oli hoped was to the authorities.

Seb nodded and thanked him before putting one of the bracelets on Oli's wrist. Oli squeezed Seb's hand, wishing he could do more to express his gratitude at surviving thanks to Seb's quick thinking. Seb handed him the other bracelet and extended his wrist. Oli slid the protection ward onto his arm. As he tightened it, he stroked the skin inside Seb's arm.

'One day, I'll put a different kind of jewellery on you for protection,' he said impulsively, their brush with death making him feel like he should take Seb back to their hotel room and show his appreciation with his body.

Seb took his hand and squeezed it, running his thumb over Oli's. The whisky had clearly worked its magic, because he was no longer trembling.

'I will hold you to that,' Seb said. He gave Oli the cute little grin that he only used when they were being coupley. 'Mon Chouchou.'

**Author's Note:**

> French translations:  
Je t'aime = I love you  
Je t'aime aussi = I love you too  
Mon chouchou = my baby/my sweetie


End file.
